


A Few Clones Short Of A Circus

by thenerdyantelope



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: AU, Multi, circus AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-09 23:06:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2001471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenerdyantelope/pseuds/thenerdyantelope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Circus AU: Aldous Leekie is the harsh ringmaster with a septuplet of acts. The death of their mother has left the siblings with no choice but to perform. The alternative is something that none of them want to face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_“GOOD EVENING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! HOW ARE WE ALL TONIGHT?”_ Ringmaster Leekie’s voice booms over the megaphone as the crowd cheers, “ _WE HAVE A FANTASTIC RANGE OF ENTERTAINMENT FOR YOU TONIGHT. COSIMA OUR RESIDENT MAGICIAN.”_ Lights up Cosima waves, pulls a bunch of flowers out her sleeve and throws them to the crowd, the crowd cheers. “ _THE FANTASTIC TRAPEZEING DUO, ALISON AND BETH!”_ Lights up on the ceiling, Alison and Beth cross paths in the air, the crowd cheers, “ _TONY THE HILARIOUS CLOWN!”_ Lights up on Tony, he drives round the ring in his car, the crowd cheers, “ _AND THE FINAL ACT OF THE NIGHT. THE DARING, THE INCREDIBLE, SARAH THE STUNTWOMAN.”_ Lights up on Sarah, she waves enthusiastically at the crowd, the crowd cheers, “ _GIVE IT UP FOR, THE CIRCUS CLONES!”_

Lights down. And up again. The show begins.

~~

Sarah sat in her spot after the show, staring at herself in the mirror, wiping the makeup off her face, wincing slightly when she jostled her hip. She’d landed too hard on it during the dive that night, so quickly downed some painkillers whilst, Cosima and Tony lounged on the sofa of their trailer, sharing a joint between them. She knew they wouldn’t notice if she was quick, she didn’t want them too.

“One day Sarah. One day we’ll get you on this.” Tony offered it to her for the thousandth time.

She snorted and shook her head, “Not tonight you tit. Don’t get too high, Rachel’ll nark at you.” Rachel; the oldest of the septuplets; was obviously Leekie’s favourite. With her perfect hair and perfect attitude to the show, she wanted for nothing, she even had her own trailer.

“Screw Rachel. Bitch can come get high with us. Might loosen her up a bit.” He remarked, earning a punch from Cosima.

“Play nice. She’s still our sister.” She said, pulling out her hair tie and letting her dreads flow freely.

Sarah rolled her eyes, letting her siblings bicker behind her while she focussed on removing the last specks of eyeliner from her face. She’d learnt a long time ago that leaving eyeliner on was a sure track way to a hellish morning make up routine, especially with the waterproof stuff she had to wear for the diving stunts.

There was a knock on the trailer door before Felix barged his way in, a couple of pizza boxes in hand-he’d been working with Leekie for as long as any of the family could remember; and if anything was closer to them than Rachel was anymore. He grinned at Sarah as he came in, “Magnificent as always. Leekie sent these for the three of you. He doesn’t fancy having the food stores taken down again because _some people_ got the munchies.” He glared pointedly at Cosima and Tony who simply blew smoke at him in unison.

“Chill. We’ll just sit and eat the pizza instead.” Tony smiled at him, grabbing himself a slice of pepperoni before handing the box to Cosima.

Felix curled up next to Sarah, leaning his head on her shoulder, “Good. We’re off early tomorrow by the way. So make sure you get some sleep tonight.” He knew they didn’t need reminding. They were always off early, but it gave Felix some form of comfort in knowing he’d warned them.

“Always do,” Sarah saluted before twisting to grab some food for herself, “It’s usually Rachel’s puppy who does the rounds. Where’s Delphine?”

Cosima chuckled to herself, “You mean _Del-fine_.” This received a fist bump from Tony.

“Frenchie’s getting her nails done with Rachel. Hence why I had to come and talk to you lousy lot.” Felix rolled his eyes, the friendship between Rachel and Delphine was one which set awkward tones throughout the cast of the show. Cosima’s evident crush on the girl didn’t help that either, the relationship between Cosima and Rachel was already strained without the Delphine matter getting between them.

Cosima’s face fell when she heard the news and she took a long drag of the joint before curling up, grabbing her biology book and concentrating on that rather than the conversation. Luckily, Alison and Beth decided to charge in at that moment, both their faces wrinkling up at the smell of pot.

“You really shouldn’t smoke that stuff guys it’s really bad for you.” Beth scalded them; although Alison was the one who kept them tidy, it was Beth who kept the family lawful-for the most part anyway.

“Get a life Beth.” Tony teased, budging up on the sofa next to Cosima to let his sisters sit down.

Alison tutted as she sat, and began ordering the table so it was all a bit neater, “You know if you guys kept this place in better shape you wouldn’t get told off as much.”

“Oh calm it you silly tit,” Felix told her, batting her arms away from the mess, “It’s not like you two to be round at this hour. What’re you after?”

Somehow Alison managed to tighten her shoulders further, swiping her fringe out of her face, “We were wondering if we’d heard anything about Helena...I miss her.”

Everyone in the trailer froze. It had been around six years since Helena had left without a trace; no one knew why, or where she’d gone, but Leekie had been harsher on them ever since. She’d been the animal tamer; one of the most popular performances of the night, and the show hadn’t been the same without her. Even with so much time past, they were all asking questions, all still hoping their sister would come back.

Sarah put her hand on Alison’s knee in an attempt at comfort, “I miss her too Al. It’s fine...She’ll come back one day.” There was a long pause before the entirety of the trailer jumped at the loud bang on the door. Leekie had the unnerving ability to interrupt whenever the siblings were getting into a truly deep conversation. Cosima grabbed the joint off Tony and put it out quickly, shoving it behind her; she knew he wouldn’t give a shit about the smell, but if he _saw_ them smoking-well it wasn’t worth it. He came in and stood above them all, his eyes boring into the wall as he stared none of them in the eye.

“We’re leaving early. I expect all of you in your respective trailers and ready to drive in fifteen minutes.” He told them coldly, an undertone of fear in his voice which Sarah picked up on.

Felix stood, “I thought we weren’t leaving until morning?”

“We were. And now we’re leaving now.”

“That’s not fair! They’re tired; you can’t expect them to drive!” Felix retorted; unlike the siblings who had given up defending themselves a long time ago, Fe was still willing to stand up for them.

An amused smile lit Leekie’s face, his eyes zeroing in on Felix’s, “If they wish to stay here then they can. However, I’m sure no one wants to lose the circus, look at our dear Helena,” He let his words wash over the shocked family for a minute before speaking again, “Dawkins I expect you to have them in order and ready to go,” He glanced at his watch, “You now have twelve minutes.” Leekie cast a smile over all the siblings before leaving, the trailer door swinging shut behind him.

Felix swallowed hard, before quietly mumbling, “C’mon. Sarah you drive this one, the dragons are too high, you’ll end up crashing. Ali and Beth, I’m assuming you two’ll shift it as usual. I’ll have to drive _her highness._ ” He rolled his eyes, it was a well known fact that Delphine never lifted a paw for Rachel; since she’d lost her sisterhood she’d almost adopted Delphine as a substitute, and unfortunately Felix didn’t get the same treatment.

The lot of them stood, Alison and Beth ducked out quickly, Alison bugging her sister to “get her butt into wiggle mode”, meanwhile Felix hugged the three remaining sibling’s goodbye and left them to it.

“What’s got Leekie in a mood then?” Cosima asked, throwing her book to the side and getting her cardigan ready, to go with Sarah to the car.

Sarah shrugged, “Christ knows. Tony are you staying here?”

Tony stretched himself out over the sofa, lighting another joint and giving the girls a shit-eating grin, “Yeah, I’ll let you ladies drive.” He winked, taking a long drag on the cigarette.

“Twat.” Sarah chuckled fondly, before her and Cosima hopped out the trailer and climbed into the car it was attached too. Sarah revved it up, Cosima put on some music and the pair sat, lights beaming ahead of them. They sat in silence, the music washing over them, as they waited for Leekie’s van to pull out; no one was allowed to drive off without either following Leekie, or if they had explicit permission from him and were also with Felix or Delphine. The tight security measures had been in place ever seen Helena had disappeared.

Leekie’s van set off exactly twelve minutes after he said it would, and the drivers all fell into line, Felix, then Alison, then Sarah. Sarah saw her headlights bounce off something as she drove out.

She could have sworn it was a flash of bleach blonde hair; but it was gone by the time she had a chance to properly look. She shuddered, _it couldn’t be_ , she glanced at Cosima to see if she’d noticed it-she hadn’t. Sarah shook herself off and continued driving. It was probably just her imagination.


	2. Chapter 2

Felix hadn’t appeared in the trailer the next morning _(Morning all! Morning all! Time to get up and out of bed)_. Or through the day during rehearsal ( _Come on Sarah keep that hip up or you’ll fuck it up again!)_. And now, as it reached early evening and came close to the time when the show would go up, Sarah was beginning to get worried. She’d sat herself with Alison and Beth-being trapeze artists the pair knew a fair bit about injury. They’d found her an ice pack and some painkillers and the trio now sat in the stands, watching Cosima rehearse her magic act.

“Have either of you two seen Felix today?”

Alison frowned, “No. Not since yesterday. He drove Rachel and Delphine here I thought?”

“Yeah...He’s not shown his face today.” Sarah’s voice gave off a deep concern. Whenever Felix stood up to Leekie in front of the siblings he always suffered some form of consequence, however usually it would be extra work-he’d never disappeared before.

Beth’s brow furrowed, “I’d heard from Tony that he’s sick?  He should be around tonight.”

Sarah thought to herself.  _Felix is never sick_ . She decided she’d leave it for the time being; knowing Felix he’d chipped a nail or something and was too busy filing it back to the perfect length-there would be no need to worry.

“Go suit up ladies. I expect you all to be on top form tonight.” Leekie relit the tent to full lighting, again, causing the cast to shrink back as their eyes readjusted. They filed out, Cosima joining Sarah, Alison and Beth as they wandered back to the trailers.

“How’s the hip?” Cosima asked, pulling off her ‘magic coat’ (which in reality was filled with many hidden pockets and many hidden props.

Sarah shrugged, “It’s alright. Thanks to these two squares, I shouldn’t miss the spot tonight.” For the comment she received a playful nudge from Beth, eliciting a giggle from her sister. However the four fell silent when they saw Rachel and Delphine approaching.

Despite the sisters being identical, Rachel always seemed to stand taller than the others and not just because she had a pair of stilettos practically glued to her feet. Delphine trailed behind her; her sweet smile contrasting with the look of disdain Rachel gave her sisters.

“Good evening sisters,” She drawled, “Looking forward to this evening? I must say Sarah your performance yesterday was simply stunning.” Her eyes narrowed at Sarah who just rolled her eyes.

“Get over yourself Rach, Leekie’ll dump you in it just like he did us at some point,” She muttered before nodding at the other woman, “Delphine.” She received a faint smile in return.

Rachel tutted, “Sister dearest you are ridiculous sometimes.” She gave the other three a nod before stalking off.

“Err. I am sorry about that,” Delphine’s light French accent filled the silence, “She can be funny yes?” Her light-hearted comment fell flat, “Um. Cosima I saw you rehearsing earlier and it looked magnifique. Err, bonne chance tonight ladies.” Her eyes lingered on Cosima before she hurried after Rachel. Cosima flushed scarlet, her eyes widening as she stared after Delphine.

“Ooooo,” Beth grinned, putting on a bad fake French accent, “Bonne chance ma Cherie. I love you Cosima I doooo.” Sarah and Alison burst into laughter, Cosima glared at them.

“Be nice Beth,” Alison rebuked her before a smirk lit her face, “Let Cosima _hon hon her baguette_ by herself.” She snorted to herself while the other three simply look at her with fond smiles on their faces. It was rare that Alison attempted innuendo; she was usually incredibly direct so when she did the rest of the siblings had made a pact to laugh along with it. No matter how awful it was.

Cosima breathed slowly, regaining her glare, “Shut up. All of you. I’m going to go and get ready.” And by ready she meant immerse herself in science books for three hours in the hope that no one would take the piss out of her anymore for her crush.

As they saw her patterned cardigan swing round the corner of the tent the three burst into laughter, and they spend the next few hours chatting happily about their sister’s future wedding.

~~

The trailer door clunked open and to Sarah’s surprise Felix walked in. His fringe had been flattened over his face and he also wore one of Tony’s hats-from that Sarah instantly knew something was wrong.

“Where you been?” She asked him, twisting so that he could do up the zipper on her leotard.

He kept his head down, “I’ve been busy.”He gently zipped her up, being careful to mind her hair which she had yet to style. She frowned and spun in her place, looking up at him with confusion.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, reaching for the hat.

He swiped her hand away and laughed nervously, “Nothing’s wrong. Don’t be an idiot.” He tried to move away but reached up and held his shoulder’s firmly.

“Fe. You tell Tony all the bloody time that those hats are an abomination what’s happened?”

He sighed, and reluctantly pulled the cap off, sweeping his fringe to the side revealing a grotesque purple bruise on his cheek bone. Sarah gasped, as Felix’s face fell.

“Did...Did Leekie do that to you?” Outrage coloured her voice as she visibly tensed up, anger glinting in her eyes.

Felix shook his head, “It doesn’t matter okay? It’s _fine._ ”

“This isn’t bloody fine Felix! Giving you more work is one thing but _hurting you_? That’s not okay!”  She grabbed an ice pack out the freezer door, wrapped it in a tea towel and hurled it at him. She felt nothing but concern for Felix; he was like a brother to her and the fact that Leekie had _physically_ done something too him made her mad, her protective instincts kicking in. She also wondered however, what had gone on the previous evening to make Leekie lash out in such a way-he was more of an ‘I’m going to cause you emotional trauma’ kind of guy; why had they left the set up last night in such a hurry anyway? Sarah dismissed the questions; knowing they’d all be safer if they were ignored.

She stared Felix down until he placed the pack on the bruise, wincing slightly at the pain which shot through his face, “You don’t need to worry about it. He was just pissed about whatever had gone on last night.” He told her, giving her a half hearted smile.

Sarah reciprocated, “Just...Be careful okay. Dunno what we’d do without you. You’re the best of us.” Despite the smile, Felix could still see her planning murder in her eyes.

“Sarah; you be careful too,” He told her gently, “Remember you’ve got the _entire_ family.” Something about the way Felix said the phrase made her narrow her eyes slightly. Felix knew something; she didn’t know what it was but she was going to find out. However, she decided to leave it for the time being. She had a show to prepare for.

~~

That evening, Sarah’s eyes didn’t leave Leekie throughout the show; in spite of Felix’s warning she was still plotting his demise. She had reason to now anyway-there was something going on that he didn’t want them to know about. She’d first become suspicious when Delphine had told them all that evening that it would be Rachel on the mic and acting as ringmaster; since then she’d been watching him all night. He was on one of the doors of the tent; and had put Delphine and Felix on the others-evidently someone was being kept out.

“ _AND NOW. THE FINALE OF THE NIGHT!”_ Rachel’s voice boomed through tent, “ _THE MAGNIFICENT DIVING STUNT BY OUR VERY OWN...SARAH!”_ The crowd cheered as Sarah took her place at the top of the diving board. She bounced slightly on the board-years of the same act had made her an expert on how to rile the crowd up. Lean forward as to what looks like too far; pretend to flail, let them gasp then cheer as she recovers it. Her eyes darted around the tent; Leekie was watching outside his door intently-it was incredibly rare he didn’t watch to make sure Sarah’s stunt didn’t go perfectly. Now it was time to make them count down, “ _COUNT HER DOWN FOLKS. COME ON SARAH!”_ Rachel’s voice boomed once again.

“ _TEN. NINE. EIGHT.”_ The crowd roars in unison. Sarah puts on her biggest smile and concentrates on the task at hand.

“ _SEVEN. SIX. FIVE.”_ Bounce twice; focus on the centre of the pool. Back straight then snap quickly to fit in; that’s how she ballsed up yesterday.

“ _FOUR. THREE.”_ She spies Leekie panic; shouting at someone outside the tent.

“ _TWO.”_ Leekie runs, she loses focus on the task, repressing the urge to take off after him.

“ _ONE.”_ She launches herself off the board and into the pool. Misses the landing. Her elbow crunches against the bottom of the pool. No matter; she needs to recover. She stands up puts up her unbroken arm and bows before hooking her towel over her shoulder, sauntering off as the crowd screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay head's up i'll probs be mentioning abbi in all of these so go follow her [here](http://willgrahamed.tumblr.com/) and save urself some trouble (she's the best). i hope you all enjoyed!!

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to [Abbi](http://willgrahamed.tumblr.com/) for putting up with my incessant questions and ramblings about it! Hope you enjoy it!


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